Age, Neuropathology, and Dementia

Background Research in Alzheimer's disease is focused mainly on younger old persons, whereas studies involving very old persons report attenuated relationships between the pathological features of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Methods We assessed 456 brains donated to the population-based Medical Research Council Cognitive Function and Ageing Study from persons 69 to 103 years of age at death. We used a standard neuropathological protocol that included measures of the pathological features of Alzheimer's disease, cerebral atrophy, and cerebrovascular disease. Neuropathological variables were dichotomized to represent no burden or a mild burden of pathological lesions as compared with a moderate or severe burden. Logistic regression was used to estimate the effect of age on the relationship between neuropathological features and dementia. Results The difference in the prevalence of moderate and severe Alzheimer's-type pathological changes between persons with and those without dementia decreased with i...